Higher education blueprint – A race against time

The implementation of Somalia's much-vaunted Education Sector Strategic Plan 2018-2020 (ESSP) is in danger of being derailed because of a failure to engage education actors, weak leadership and a general lack of commitment, Somali higher education experts warn.

While the ESSP report was written in November 2017, Somalia’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education publicly released the plan as a policy blueprint in October 2018. It outlines what ails the sector and what needs to be done to turn it around within three years. The plan covers higher education, technical and vocational education, as well as early childhood, primary, secondary and alternative basic education.

When the plan was announced, international NGO Global Partnership for Education (GPE) granted the Somali government US$17.9 million to facilitate delivery of its goals. GPE had identified several factors that were impeding the development of Somali education, among which were a lack of research and publishing, a shortage of tutors and lecturers, and insufficient educational infrastructure.

Standardised curriculum framework

Somalia’s education ministry agreed, noting that a failure to establish comprehensive national higher education laws and policies, and a national commission for higher education to implement them, has made it impossible for Somalia to have a standardised national curriculum framework.

“There is a lack of curricula guidance or quality benchmarks or other key forms of support and finally, weaknesses and deficiencies in the university management system, including the absence of clear regulations,” the plan notes.

The ESSP plan recommends strengthening regulations, supporting access for marginalised and at-risk youth, and expanding access and quality through infrastructure expansion and rehabilitation. It also calls for the improvement of quality assurance systems, standards and governance structures of universities.

As a means to increase knowledge generation by universities, it proposes better support for university personnel who engage in research activities and produce innovative knowledge that could contribute to the economic and social development of Somalia as it recovers from its lengthy civil war.

Lack of stakeholder inputs

However, Farhan Isak Yusuf, a political scientist and lecturer at Mogadishu University, told University World News that very little progress has been made because, though the plan “touched on the realities of the education sector, it lacks insightful inputs from the stakeholders operating on the ground”.

The plan sets 2020 as the deadline for establishing a reliable baseline figure with regard to the number of youth and adults enrolled in higher education so that plans to increase enrolment by 10,000 can be measured. Another goal is that 50% of Somali universities should have adopted quality standards by 2020.

To achieve these goals, universities need to have a “functional Higher Education Commission with a clear subsector policy” in place. They also need to strengthen research capacity at higher education institutions so they can generate at least “three high quality pieces of research to support innovation by 2020”. But with 2019 ticking away, Yusuf says none of these targets have been met.

Yusuf said the Somali higher education sector still lacks sufficient qualified staff in specialised fields and publishing remains weak. “If we had religiously implemented the plan, it would have given an avenue to hunt promising graduates and invest in them,” he said. This has not happened.

Yusuf called on government to salvage the situation by identifying initiatives that can be delivered rapidly and fast-tracking them before the 2020 deadlines were missed.

He called for enhanced resources to be committed. “Although the remaining time is short, this plan can be implemented. All that is needed is full cooperation and dedication of all players, including senior ministry officials, backed up with necessary resources,” he said.

Threat to future funding

Abdi Osman, a former Somalia minister of education, culture and higher education, is also concerned. He said not meeting their goals by 2020 could cost Somalia dearly in terms of future international funding aimed at turning higher education around.

According to Osman, GPE’s funding of the plan was motivated partly by the need to accurately benchmark the current size and state of higher education in Somalia and to formulate a credible education development policy.

“Education without standardised curricula will have a negative impact on quality and impact poorly on general national development. This is what the plan set out to remedy,” Osman told University World News.

Officials at the ministry of education, culture and higher education did not respond to University World News emails, text messages and phone calls seeking their response to how the implementation process is going.

No buy-in from regions

Dr Siman Ibrahim, a visiting lecturer at Somaliland's Nugaal University’s faculty of education, said that even though the plan set out a progressive policy, implementation has stalled because it did not involve regional administrations in its development.

“It was built on assumptions that once rolled out, the regional states will just adopt it,” she said. But with much of Somalia still largely under the control of such regional bodies, also including Puntland, for instance, the plan “suffers from ownership and acceptance” weaknesses because it is regarded as an initiative of officials in the federal state, whose authority remains weak, especially outside the capital, Siman told University World News.

However, there is still reason for hope. “We are all in agreement that the haphazard running of the education sector is costing us. All players need to be brought to the table and the timeframe should be revised so that resolutions on its implementations are accepted across the country,” Siman said.

She and Yusuf agreed that the absence of research capacity has been exacerbated by weak links with other higher education institutions in East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and beyond.

“Poor infrastructure, lack of curricula guidance or quality benchmarks or other key forms of support and finally, weaknesses in agencies’ management systems, including the absence of clear regulations, continue to bedevil the sector,” she said, adding that these and other challenges could be addressed through strict implementation of the ESSP plan.